Have Cake and Eat It Too!!

My neighbor, who is also a very good friend of mine, recently celebrated her birthday and of course I just HAD to make her a cake...but this was no "normal" cake.  You see, my sweet friend is allergic to gluten.  Sadly, the main ingredient in cake is flour, which is nothing but a bunch of gluten.  Therefore, she had never really had a "real" birthday cake.  Her allergy was discovered when she was a baby, her mother would make her a small cake on her birthday while the rest of her friends ate "normal" cake.  How could I NOT make her a cake after finding all of this out??  It was a challenge and I stressed more than I probably even needed to over this cake.  I packed a bag full of ingredients and headed over to her house, I had her inspect everything I was planning to use.  Once my ingredient list passed the gluten free test, I began the baking process.  The first cake I made did not rise.  In fact, it looked more like a large cookie rather than a cake.  Epic Fail.  My second attempt went much better.  I was prepared for the cake not to rise, so I added more batter to the pan.  This worked! I wanted one layer to be chocolate cake and the other to be yellow butter cake.  The chocolate cake was the last one I made and it too turned out just perfect.

Before the cakes were made, I put my designing skills to work...threw in a little poetry and came up with the perfect design for her cake.

She loved her cake, as did everyone that celebrated her birthday.  It was a success! My first gluten free cake was a success!!

The best part was watching my friends reaction when she saw her cake for the first time.

The writing on the cake:

"Happy Birthday Christie,

Cheers to you!

Now you can have your cake,

and eat it too!!"

Basketball Birthday

These cupcakes were made for the daughter of a guy I work with.  She told her dad all she wanted for her birthday was a basketball.
Well, she got two dozen...cupcake syle!
Basketballs were made out of fondant and hand drawn with an edible food marker.

1st Birthday Monkey Style

This cake was the smash cake for a friends little boy.
His mommy made cupcakes to match and requested I make the smash cake.
The cake was yellow, frosted in homemade buttercream.
The monkey face was fondant.

A Baby Shower Themed Monkey Cake

The bottle was sculpted out of RK's and covered in fondant. 
Everything else was hand sculpted out of gum paste.
The cake was marble, frosted with homemade buttercream icing.

How the Grinch Stole Christmas

"The Grinch hated Christmas - the whole Christmas season. Now, please don't ask why; no one quite knows the reason. It could be, perhaps, that his shoes were too tight. Or it could be that his head wasn't screwed on just right. But I think that the most likely reason of all may have been that his heart was two sizes too small." or maybe, he knew not how to bake and no one had ever given him his very own cake!!! (yeah, I went there, haha)

I had a blast making this cake. Have I mentioned I love Dr. Seuss? Designing a cake after one of his books is never boring. The cakes are iced in buttercream, all decorations are hand sculpted out of fondant. The features on the Grinch and max (the dog) are hand painted with a food pen.

Forgotten-Forgive Me

I'm here! I'm here!

I wish I would of thought to post a note here sooner, alas' I decided to take a break from cake decorating back in January and never thought to post an explanation.
I started taking a handful of classes at my local community college (web design and creative writing!!) and trying to juggle life, school and my many hobbies was proving to be a tad difficult.
Forgive me for not providing an update sooner.

I checked my email today, the first time in over a month (I'm horrible! I know!) and realized I had let many fellow cake lovers down. Forgive me!!!!

I do have a few more pictures to update the blog with and I will get to posting those asap.
I am also taking cake orders again and will slowly begin to post here along the way.

Thank you for the sweet emails, comments and words of encouragement along the way. Thank you for continuing to support this crazy hobby of mine!!

GO GAMECOCKS!!!

This cake was a LOT of fun to make largely because...well, I'm a South Carolina Gamecocks fan!

This cake was actually a birthday cake, made for a guy that loves Gamecocks and Ralph Lauren Polo.
His daughter requested that I find a way to mix the two.
At first I thought it might be a bit of a challenge, but I was actually very pleased with how it turned out!

Here's a little peek into the "before" process of a cake:

Cocky (the Gamecocks mascot) was hand sculpted out of RK's, fondant and gum paste.

Cocky is always holding up the #1 sign! So this mini replica was no exception.

The polo images were actually hand painted on gum paste discs that I cut out and then allowed to air dry before drawing the images on. I actually looked at the image on a polo shirt that I own and just free handed it with edible markers (a very cool tool by the way!).

I used a toothpick to hand carve each of the feathers.

Birthday Bugs!

The birthday boy that received this cake is a bug fanatic!
He loves his insects (knows them all too).
So what better cake to make than one covered in bugs?
The bottom layer was yellow cake and actually my first attempt at a square cake! (Shocking, I know).
The tree stump layer was chocolate cake.
All of the bugs were made out of fondant.
The "ant hill" was crushed vanilla wafers and the spider web was gum paste.

My Little Pony Birthday Cake

I do not typically use any plastic toys on any of my cakes, in fact, this was the first time.

However, this cake was for my goddaughter and I wanted her to have the ability to keep the ponies after her cake was gone. Kind of a way to have her cake and her birthday present too.

The cake was chocolate and all decorations were fondant, royal icing and disco dust (besides the ponies of course).

Cake Wreck!!!!

I'm getting ready to post pictures of the latest cakes that I've made...and was going to just stick to posting the pictures and adding a little briefing about what materials were involved. You know, basically just do what I've been doing.
Then I remembered why I started this whole blog.
It really wasn't to showcase my cakes, nope. It was to showcase what I've learned, the trials and errors, the masterpieces and the epic failures, it was to blog about the journey this messy hobby takes me!
I've got to get back to my blog roots....therefore....
I've got to blog about a cake wreck I had over the weekend.

I took on the challenge of making two cakes and twenty four cupcakes last weekend, mistake number one (please remember, this is my hobby, I also have a full time job, a dog, a husband, and household chores!). I thought I had a pretty good head start come Wednesday. I had the fondant colored and ready. I had the cakes drawn out and designed on paper. I had all of my baking and decorating materials laid out. Thursday was looking good, I got started on the fondant decorations and had all of the cakes baked and in the freezer (one day I'll explain that whole process). Then Friday came around, my plan was to run to the supply store on my lunch break and get the boxes for the cakes and cupcakes, I also needed a color I did not have in disco dust. However, Friday was the day my work decided to treat us to lunch and I was unable to run my errand. This left me rushing to the cake supply story after work, rushing home to start the decorating process and packing my bags to drive over an hour to the upstate. Did I mention the cakes were for individuals that lived over an hour away?

I completed the cakes at...midnight! Packed the car, secured the cakes, and took off up the road. I did NOT pack any emergency cake fixing materials, mistake number two. When we arrived at my in-laws it was close to 2am. I was exhausted. I placed the cakes in a secure spot, high on a shelf, in a cool area, and went to bed.
We woke early Saturday morning to deliver the first cake. As I walked upstairs, groggy and sleep deprived, my sweet husband met me with a smile and then said the words I DREAD hearing "Uhmmm, a huge chunk of your cake fell".

"WHAT!!"
I ran over to survey the damage and he was correct. On one of the cakes, a my little pony cake, I had piped huge, white, fluffy clouds, out of butter cream icing. Apparently the icing, the drive and maybe the temperature were enough to cause the butter cream to actually slide right off of the cake. The cloud and all of the icing it took along with it were in a pile on the bottom of the cake box. I think I cried, I can't remember.
I also DID NOT take pictures...sorry.

We went to deliver the first cake, the whole time my mind was racing on how to fix my cake disaster, and on our way back it hit me. I had my husband run me to Michael's and I made my way to the cake section. I grabbed up a decorating bag, a coupler, and two different kinds of white icing (Wilton butter cream and duff's decorating icing in a bag). We rushed back to the cake and I did what I could to repair and save the cake. Thankfully, the cake that bit the dust was my best friends, little girls, cake. Therefore I was able to admit to my epic fail and then warn her that one cloud was not going to taste exactly like the others...because of course the rest of the clouds were made out of my homemade butter cream icing and the repaired cloud ended up being a mix of both icings I purchased at Michael's.

I learned a few lessons from this and I've actually started supporting my cakes a little differently now. I'll post about my new support structure later...until then, it's back to the kitchen for me! I have a cake due next week. I'll post pictures of both of the cakes I made last weekend asap.

Pink and Purple Dancing Monkey

The girly monkey was sculpted entirely out of fondant and gum paste. The cake was chocolate with homemade buttercream icing. The #1 was gum paste and disco dust. I also used disco dust on the crown and around the edges of the skirt.

The Cat in The Hat

I finally got the chance to make a cake that I have been wanting to create for quite some time. The recipient was turning one and her mother was throwing a Dr. Seuss themed birthday party! This cake was so fun. I drew the design on paper and then started sculpting. The top piece of cake and hat were RK's covered in fondant. The piece of cake had disco and luster dust on it to make it sparkle. The cake itself was golden butter with buttercream icing.

I made thing 1 and thing 2 out of gum paste. I rolled the gum paste out and hand drew the design onto it. Then I cut around the edges, I wanted to leave a white boarder so the "things" would appear to have jumped straight out of the pages of "The Cat in The Hat" book. Everything was hand drawn and painted with lemon flavoring and coloring gel.

The candle was fondant/gum paste and disco dust made the flame shine.

I loved every minute of making this cake!

The tea cup and fish were carved from cake, one of my first attempts at cake carving. I iced the entire cake before putting on a layer of fondant. I was fairly happy with how the cup turned out. I tried to keep everything as whimsical as possible. I hope I would have made Dr. Seuss proud =)

***You have no idea how many poems I have come up with to go along with this cake...but I decided to spare you all....after all, I decorate cakes I don't really do poems....but if you can come up with a really good poem to go along with this cake, I would LOVE to hear it!!!!!***